The Introvert

The world lurched.

Lena barely had time to gasp before everything around her shifted.

The city street she had been standing on dissolved, replaced by something… impossible.

She stumbled, her breath hitching as she looked around. The air itself felt thick, pressing against her skin with a strange weight. The world was darker here, the shadows deeper, stretching and twisting like they had a mind of their own.

Buildings stood at impossible angles, bending and warping as if reality itself was struggling to hold them together. Some hung upside down, suspended in midair. Others extended into the distance, but not in any direction that made sense—some roads led straight into the sky, while others twisted back on themselves like an optical illusion.

It was like stepping into a fractured version of reality.

Lena's stomach churned.

"What the hell—" She turned sharply, eyes blazing. "What did you do to me?"

Riven stood beside her, unbothered by the chaos surrounding them.

"I brought you to our world." His voice was calm, but there was something else beneath it—satisfaction.

Lena's pulse pounded.

His world?

She took a cautious step forward. The ground beneath her feet was solid, but there was something… wrong about it. It felt like she was standing on the surface of a dream—real, but not quite.

"This isn't possible," she whispered.

Riven chuckled. "Not by your rules."

A shiver ran down her spine.

She turned in a slow circle, trying to take in the sheer impossibility of the space around her.

The sky wasn't black but a swirling abyss, like ink mixing with water. No stars. No moon. Just an endless void.

She swallowed.

Her mind screamed at her to panic. To run.

But deep down, beneath the fear and confusion—

A strange sense of familiarity settled in her chest.

As if, somehow… she had been here before.

Lena clenched her fists.

No. That was impossible.

She had never seen anything like this in her life.

And yet…

"You're thinking it, aren't you?"

She snapped her gaze to Riven.

His smirk was knowing. Amused.

Lena didn't respond.

Because he was right.

She was thinking about it.

Thinking about how this place—this impossible, fractured world—didn't feel foreign.

It felt like something she had forgotten.

Before she could respond, a sound cut through the silence.

Footsteps.

Lena stiffened.

From the shadows, figures emerged.

They weren't like Riven.

There was something off about them.

Their silhouettes wavered, shifting unnaturally, as if they weren't fully formed. As if they were caught between existence and something else.

Lena's breath hitched.

A woman stepped forward.

She was tall, dressed in dark robes that shimmered like liquid. Her face was striking—sharp cheekbones, cold silver eyes that locked onto Lena with unnerving intensity.

She didn't just look powerful.

She felt powerful.

The weight of her presence pressed against Lena's skin, making it harder to breathe.

Riven inclined his head slightly. "This is Sable."

Lena swallowed hard.

Even without an introduction, she knew—

Sable wasn't just anyone.

She was someone important.

Someone dangerous.

"Welcome, Lena Carter," Sable said, her voice smooth and unreadable. "We've been waiting for you."

Lena's chest tightened.

Waiting?

Her fingers curled at her sides.

She had so many questions.

But first—

"What do you want from me?"

Sable studied her for a long moment. Then she smiled.

"Everything."

Lena's breath caught.

The word rang through her like an unspoken threat.

She shouldn't have come.

She should have ignored Riven.

She should have run.

But now, it was too late.

The figures around her shifted, their movements eerily smooth, like smoke taking shape.

They weren't just watching.

They were waiting.

Lena's throat tightened. "I don't understand."

Sable's silver eyes gleamed.

"You will."

She raised a hand.

The air around them rippled.

And in that moment, Lena knew—

She wasn't leaving the same person she had been before.

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